After arguing that the old and new covenants are the same in that they both demand perfect obedience, the author of the criticism against Searching for Truth then says the only difference between the two is that Jesus in the New has fulfilled all of the sacrifices of the Old. We already examined this claim that only portions of the Law of Moses were done away and found it to be wanting. It is only an assertion that cannot stand the light of evidence.
So why would anyone want to argue that only portions of the Law have been done away with? The answer is that he wants to retain something from that now-defunct system. If Shernel and others acknowledge that the Law has been taken away, then that means that the Sabbath and the dietary laws have also been removed, and for some reason they do not want to let go of those things, although they clearly have been changed. God demonstrated to Peter that all animals were acceptable for consumption under the Christian age (Acts 10:9-20).
The Sabbath was a sign between God and the children of Israel forever (Ex. 31:17). The most one could argue is that the day is still binding upon the Jews, but the Seventh-Day Adventists cannot even logically do that—because it would also bind the ceremonial aspects of the Law (which they say were done away with) that are also termed as being “forever.” In the Old Testament, the term forever meant age-lasting. All of those things came to an end when the covenant did.
The reason Shernel insists that the Old Testament was not thoroughly terminated is that the New Testament does not authorize worship on the Sabbath day. If there were a single passage in the New Testament that told Christians to meet on the Sabbath day or if a single verse showed Christians meeting to worship then, they would not need to insist that the Law of Moses were still semi-effective, but there is not.
The New Testament and the Sabbath
However, knowing that the best defense is a good offense, Shernel writes:
I find it quite amazing that anyone could say that the Sabbath or Sabbath commandment is not in the New Testament. I find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that it is mentioned 50 times. In Acts it appears 9 times and in Colossians once. A total of 60 times the Sabbath is mentioned (5).
This paragraph provides the perfect example of how false teachers try to manipulate people. No, the writer is not lacking in mathematical skills, but not one of those 60 times are Christians commanded to keep or remember the Sabbath. The vast majority of those references involve controversy; someone is complaining that Jesus violated the Sabbath day, something that neither He nor His followers ever did. Jesus lived and died under the Old Testament system; thus He kept every law in the Mosaic system perfectly.
Eight of the ten times that Sabbath occurs in Matthew are in one text (Matt. 12:1-12). In the first eight verses the disciples were accused of violating the Sabbath by doing “work.” It was a tradition of the Jews they transgressed—not the Law. The second event in Matthew 12 involves Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day. Seven of Mark’s eleven usages refer to these same two occasions, as do six of Luke’s eighteen references to the Sabbath. That makes 21 out of the 50 (42%), and these have nothing to do with binding the Sabbath on man. Nine of John’s eleven references relate to Jesus healing on the Sabbath, as well as eight more of Luke’s, making a total of 38 out of 50. Seven more refer to the Sabbath day that Jesus was in the tomb, which only leaves five Sabbath mentions remaining.
One of those last five relates to fleeing Jerusalem; Jesus says they should pray it is not on a Sabbath day (Matt. 24:20). The final four of the 50 references all have to do with Jesus entering the synagogues and teaching on the Sabbath day (Mark 1:21; 6:2; Luke 4:16, 31). These are the same types of references found in the book of Acts. After the initial Sabbath-day’s journey mentioned in Acts 1:12, there are two general references to Moses or the prophets being read each Sabbath. The other six refer to the fact that Paul preached to the Jews on the Sabbath day. Why? That was the day the Jews met. These verses say nothing about Christians meeting then.
The final mention in the New Testament works against the author. Colossians 2:16-17 exhorts:
Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
These comments are based on what Paul had just pointed out—that the law had been nailed to the cross. Since that old covenant is no longer in effect, Jewish Christians (or Gentile ones, for that matter) should not allow their fellows Jews (Christian or not) to judge them with respect to keeping portions of the law. They were no longer under that law, and they had no obligation to keep those commandments any longer. They should not allow someone to tell them they could not eat certain foods, as per the dietary restrictions under the law. Neither did they have to honor the various feasts that had been required of them—or the new moon (Ps. 81:3; Amos 8:5) or the Sabbath day; these were only a shadow of the things to come.
When someone reads Shernel’s material, the 60 references to the Sabbath day sounds impressive, but not one of these involves Christians being commanded to keep the Sabbath day or Christians meeting then. In fact, Colossians 2:16 declares that Christians do not have to keep it and should not be judged when they do not honor that day. Below is the breakdown once again.
The disciples criticized for eating grain 13
The man with the withered hand 8
Other references to Sabbath-day healings 17
The Sabbath after Jesus was crucified 7
Fleeing on the Sabbath 1
Jesus teaching on the Sabbath 4
A Sabbath-day’s journey 1
Moses and the prophets read on the Sabbath 2
Paul teaching on the Sabbath 6
Don’t judge Christians for not keeping the Sabbath 1
Total 60
None of these 60 references admonish Christians to keep the Sabbath day. They simply describe what was practiced while the Law of Moses was in effect and what the Jews still practiced after it came to an end.
The Missing Commandment
What Seventh-Day Adventists need is a passage that teaches the perpetuation of the Sabbath day, and they cannot find one. Where is the message from the Lord that the fourth commandment is “the authenticating seal” of the other nine (5)? Why, when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandments, did He not say, “The fourth commandment is the greatest because it is the seal of all the others”? How could that point have escaped Jesus’ attention? And where is the glowing passage in the Sermon on the Mount? He even mentioned that the Law must be kept until all things were fulfilled. What a great opportunity to re-emphasize keeping the Sabbath Day holy! Yet He did not refer to it there or anywhere else in His entire ministry—except in dispute as to whether He had violated it or not.
Where is the veneration of the Sabbath day in the epistles? Paul wrote to the Corinthians about their assemblies and the things they were doing wrong in them, but he never says they were on the Sabbath day; in fact, he commands them to put aside their gift on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:2), which would be an odd request if they assembled together on the seventh day. Where is at least one passage that teaches brethren to observe the Sabbath? If that day were still binding, we would expect one passage like the one below:
My prayer for you all is that you continue to grow in grace and knowledge and continue to keep the Sabbath day holy, for you know that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and rested on the seventh day. This day He sanctified and hallowed for all time, and whereas the feasts have passed away, this day stands eternal and must always be honored by all who call on His name.
If Seventh-Day Adventists had had anything to do with the compilation of the New Testament, those verses would be in there somewhere. Their absence is significant. Not only does no special mention of the Sabbath find its way into Holy Writ; no writer even made a glancing allusion to it—except to say Christians should not be judged for failure to keep it.
In Acts 15, the apostles and elders in Jerusalem made a decision regarding things taught under the old covenant because some Jews insisted that the Law of Moses and circumcision be bound upon the Gentiles (Acts 15:1, 5). The decision was this—that they had given no commandment to these Judaizing teachers or anyone else, requiring them to keep the Law of Moses or to be circumcised (Acts 15:24). These teachings were not authorized by God. The Holy Spirit would lay no greater burden upon Gentiles who became Christians than 4 things: 1) to abstain from things offered to idols; 2) from blood; 3) from things strangled; and 4) from sexual immorality (Acts 15:29). Gentiles had never kept the Sabbath day—so why were they not now told to honor that day?
From Genesis to Jesus
In the absence of evidence, Shernel resorts to irrelevant data in a vain effort to make his case. He states: “The Sabbath was given at creation and there were no Israelites or Jews at that time.” Here is an example of mixing truth with error. Of course there were no Israelites when only Adam and Eve existed. It is not the case, however, that God gave the Sabbath to man at that time. God did rest the seventh day, and although He blessed it and sanctified it, there is no evidence that He “gave” it—even to Adam and Eve. In fact, the word Sabbath does not even appear until Exodus 16:23—2,500 years after the Creation.
God does not record that Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Moses ever kept the Sabbath until the children of Israel left Egypt. Can anyone imagine the Israelites trying to convince Pharaoh that they needed one day a week to rest—and him granting such a request? God’s sanctifying the day in Genesis later served as the basis for Israel keeping the Sabbath once they were given His law (Ex. 20:8-11), but no mention is made of man observing the day for 2 and ½ millennia.
This next argument is totally illogical: “If the Old Testament was abolished or discarded, then we have no evidence of our heavenly Fathers [sic] creation week and sanctification…of the seventh day” (5). What? Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning (Rom. 15:4). Not being under that law does not mean we want to annihilate its very existence. We study the Old Testament frequently—not because we are subject to it, but because God recorded it for our benefit—including the truth about His creation.
“The Sabbath or seventh day was kept by our Savior…” (5). Jesus kept the Law perfectly because He lived under the law of Moses. He was preaching, however, the gospel of the kingdom, which does not include the Sabbath day. Now watch the slant put on this next argument:
it was kept by Paul, “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” Acts 17:2. See also Acts 18:4 (5).
What impression is the reader likely to have? Most would think that Paul worshipped on the Sabbath and that it was his custom to do so. What is the truth? It might help to read Acts 17:1: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of Jews.” Paul was not going into a synagogue to worship with Christians (as implied by Shernel). He was going into a synagogue of the Jews to reason with them about Jesus from the Scriptures. As a Jew by birth, he was allowed to address his fellow Jews, and he took the opportunity to try to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. His custom was to try to convert the Jews—not to worship on the Sabbath day. Shernel’s argument is deceitful.
“After the death of the Saviour [sic] He did not instruct His disciples that, the Sabbath Day was to be changed to Sunday the first day” (5) Actually, we do not know what Jesus said to His disciples during the 40 days He made appearances to them after His resurrection, since none of those things was recorded. The Sabbath day and the first day of the week do not correspond to each other anyway, except that both are days of worship. There are no laws against work on the first day of the week; in fact, Christians in the first century probably did work on that day, but they also worshipped God.
Shernel thinks it is significant that the women “rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56)—the day between Jesus’ burial and resurrection (5). The importance of this fact is highly over-rated. Why would they not rest on the Sabbath, since they as yet knew nothing contrary to the Law? Jesus had not arisen; He had not yet explained how He had fulfilled all things. He had not spoken with His disciples; they had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. Shernel expects way too much to have been accomplished without adequate passage of time.
“The Sabbath will be kept in heaven,” it is affirmed, with Isaiah 66:23 being cited as proof (5). Most scholars believe that this text is describing the earth, not heaven. Consider further what we know about heaven. Revelation 22:5 says there shall be no night there. Apparently, Shernel envisions heaven as a place that has 24-hour days, which are based on the earth’s rotation on its axis. Heavenly days will be based on earthly days? This is a peculiar view. Or did God pattern earthly days after heavenly days, and was the Sabbath already in existence in heaven when He made the earth? Would God really ordain a Sabbath day of rest in eternity, which is characterized as a place of rest anyway (2 Thess. 1:6-7; Rev. 14:13; Heb. 3:11; 4:1, 9-11)? What do we do on the Sabbath in heaven—rest twice as much? The idea that Christians will be resting on a Sabbath Day in heaven is a fanciful fantasy.
“The Sabbath was part of the moral law and not an ordinance” (5). The last article pointed out that the Hebrew word translated “ordinances” and “statutes” is used of all the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5); so this statement is false. That fact aside, there is nothing of a moral nature about keeping the Sabbath. Most laws concerning morality are to protect others, as Paul points out in Romans 13:10. He does not include the Sabbath Day there as one of the moral laws. Furthermore, resting one day in seven is an individual advantage—not one that directly affects others.
Shernel’s entire treatise is full of one misstatement after another, and oftentimes he “spins” things to convey an impression that is not accurate. Whenever someone presents material like he does that looks Biblical because of the use (abuse) of Scriptures, we need to take the time to look them up to see if they are used correctly or not. We need to study the Scriptures in their context, and we need to have honest hearts. How sad that many are convinced by superficial statements!